The Game Show Serial Killer Is The Chilling Subject of ITV's 'Police Tapes' & This Is What You Need To Know

Since it first aired in 2017, Susanna Reid's Police Tapes has become a central part of ITV's Crime and Punishment series. Not sure about you, but I for one am hooked, and am fascinated for the next episode, which investigates the the "Gameshow Serial Killer". But who is the Game Show Serial Killer and is he still alive today?

The Game Show Serial Killer is one of Britain's most notorious serial killers. His name is John Cooper, a Welsh labourer, who was convicted in 2011 for the murders of four people in he 1980s. Yes, he is still alive today, but thankfully, behind bars.

That's what The Gameshow Serial Killer: Police Tapes will explore. The documentary series will in particular look at the cold case review into the murders, which led to Cooper's eventual arrest for the crimes, with Reid interviewing the leading detectives that were investigating at the time. Beginning their case review in 2006, the detectives interviewed Cooper in 2008, the Guardian reports, but were unable to tie him to the crime for another year. As the show will reveal, along with forensic evidence that was eventually discovered, it was actually a 1989 appearance on popular darts-based gameshow Bullseye that helped police link Cooper with the double murders of the Thomas siblings and the Dixons.

During his time on the show, Cooper revealed himself as a keen scuba diver in the Pembrokeshire area. As Wilkins told Wales Online: "You could hardly make it up. There was Cooper, just a month before the killings, revealing on national television knowledge of the area where the Dixons would be murdered."

In the ITV documentary, specialist interviewer Detective Inspector Louise Harries opens up about what it was like to come face-to-face with the serial killer. She says: "This is the person who has committed these horrendous offences. And here he was sitting in front of me. What struck me was his piercing eyes. I think he was sussing me out, sort of glances, sideward glance from him really, he was probably trying to get the measure of me then. As much as I was doing the same to him."